Ask Corn Nation: Your Wisconsin-Nebraska Q&A Thread

But I’d say he’s fairly similar to Denard, but not quite as elusive. I haven’t seen Denard pass enough to make a good comparison, but Martinez’s passing is mostly pretty mediocre, with random great plays that make you go, ’Ohhhhhhh, so this is why the coaches insist that his arm is decent."

It’s Alfonzo Dennard, a preseason All-American CB who tore a quad muscle in fall practice and missed the first three games of the year. He came back yesterday, but looked a bit tentative and only played half the game. His absence has left a void that the Pelinis haven’t been able to fill, and has really exposed the lack of experience in the secondary.

The other big injury to watch is Jared Crick, the All-American DT who missed this week’s game with a mystery injury (rumored to be a concussion). I think he’ll be back against Wisconsin, but as we don’t know just what his injury is, we can’t say for sure.

It’s really tough to get a handle on that guy, even after watching him for about 15 games. Here’s my best attempt at a scouting report:

Passing:
- He’s just not that good. Terrible form, mediocre accuracy, average strength. The coaches have said he’s much better in this area this year, but we haven’t seen evidence of that yet.
- That said, he has his inexplicable stretches of brilliance, when he completes several tough throws. We saw it a few times last year, and we saw it in the second half of the Washington game this year. But those stretches disappear as quickly as they appeared.
- His decision-making was absolutely awful toward the end of last year – he didn’t know how to progress through reads, and relied on bailing out and running way too soon. That’s improved some this year, though I think it’s mostly because the offense has been simplified for him.

Running:
- He’s back to full speed after his ankle injury last year, and there may not be anyone on the Badger D who can beat him in a footrace. His acceleration and top-end speed are easily his biggest assets.
- Surprisingly, he’s not that shifty, especially in the pocket. He’s a one-cut-and-go guy.
- He’s started sliding and running out of bounds this year, much to the relief of Nebraska fans. This also means, though, that he’s settling for 7-8 yards on runs where he would have fought for 10-12 last year.
- His reads on the option and zone read are still so-so thus far. Every once in a while, he’ll make a fantastic one that will fool everyone on the field, but that’s more the exception than the rule right now.
- He’s hanging onto the ball much better this year – going to two hands and tucking when he’s about to get hit, which has been great to see. He’s still had some random terrible fumbles, though.

Intangibles
- Still not great, but definitely better than last year. He talks to his teammates now! Smiles, even! Talks to the media! We haven’t seen him up against any adversity yet this year, but I have a feeling we’ll get an opportunity this Saturday.

But a brief review for the Badger fans here who don’t:

Ameer Abdullah: Stud. Four games into his freshman year, he’s already the most dynamic kick returner Nebraska has had in, what, a decade? Longer? He’s shown a bit of trouble hanging onto the ball so far, but most Nebraska fans will still gladly take him over Niles Paul. Just look at the video.

Brett Maher: Looks great so far trying to fill Alex Henery’s shoes. Has only missed one FG so far, and that was a 50-yarder that was probably actually good. Solid on punting and kickoffs, too.

Dennard and Toon: Totally depends on whether Dennard is healthy. If he’s pretty much 100%, then yes. If not, Toon could have a big day. I think the Huskers should be more worried about the rest of Wisconsin’s weapons (i.e. Abbrederis) against Nebraska’s young secondary.

Yes, the Huskers are generally overrated – they probably wouldn’t be in the Top 10 right now if they had this level of talent and they were, say, Michigan State. And yes, the entire state is rabid about the football program. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

But I don’t think the state’s rabid fan base is why the program is inflated in the public’s and the media’s minds; I think it really is the leftover reputation from three decades as possibly the most dominant team in college football. Plenty of fanbases are just about as rabid (Arkansas, West Virginia, Texas A&M, etc.) yet we don’t see them getting the consistent (and sometimes undeserved) national spotlight and praise that Nebraska gets.

Also, I don’t think the fan base is still feeling any sort of high from their ‘90s championships. As you mentioned, it’s been a looooooong time since that success – I was in eighth grade during their last national title, and I’m 27 now. The scars from the Solich-era decline and the Callahan-era cratering run deep enough that the psyche of Husker fans has permanently changed: They used to be a lot more happy-go-lucky, taking winning for granted and being accustomed to waltzing into the stadium on Saturday and coming out with a 55-point win. They’re much more cornered-animal now – never sure when the next letdown or embarrassment is going to come, and snapping at anyone who might be at fault.

The linebacking corps were really only decent the last two years. Linebackers have never really been a strength of Pelini’s defenses at Nebraska – especially the last couple of years, as the Huskers have only played one or two linebackers on most downs. I think the LBs have played at about the same level this year as they did last year so far – their play last year was just masked by a phenomenal secondary.

The one real playmaker at linebacker this year (same as last year) is Lavonte David, and he’s been quietly piling up the tackles again. He hasn’t made many big plays so far, but I’m not particularly worried. (Most Husker fans are a lot more concerned about the secondary, as well they should be.) We’d all love for Sean Fisher and Will Compton to step up at LB and make some of the huge plays we expected from them when they joined the program, but David’s emergence has made that somewhat less urgent.

Obviously Martinez is no pocket passer. Like Cheeseandcorn said earlier, he’s just really inconsistent, having both moments of brilliance and moments of horrifyingly bad in the passing game in most games. You’re generally right with the Michigan comparison, I think. Martinez is very similar to Robinson (my untrained opinion is that Martinez has better acceleration and topline speed while Robinson is much shiftier) and we’ve crafted a run-heavy, option-heavy offense to accommodate him there. If our OC gets his way, Martinez will probably throw 20 times on Saturday, and a good chunk of those will be gimme swing routes, shallow drags, etc.

I’m looking forward to this game. It’s kind of like the Big Ten’s “I’m sorry” for putting us in separate divisions.

If you’re going to eat them together, though, don’t do it like this: